By Kurt Nagl | Crain’s Detroit Business | Published July 19, 2022

Amid protests over George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police two years ago, major companies in Michigan and around the country made commitments to improve diversity. As president and CEO of the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council, Michelle Sourie Robinson’s job is to make sure they keep those promises. Robinson, 54, believes the most efficient way to build wealth among minorities is to funnel capital to companies operated by and within those communities. Robinson thinks corporations are failing on this front for a variety of reasons, and evidenced by the council’s ongoing legal feud with the Piston Group LLC, she isn’t afraid of a fight.

The following conversation has been lightly edited and condensed.

• How did you get your start?
It was the mid-’90s when I started as an attorney. I was corporate counsel for Walmart — the youngest and first African American corporate counsel. So back then it was like 14 people. Today, it’s 150 or so. It’s totally changed, but I learned from some of the best in that role. I have always been an innovator, so it was an opportunity for me to go in and take something like product liability and create a flowchart and teach them how to minimize the risk and teach the store associates really what they needed to do. But I found that it opened many doors for me … From there I went to the Home Depot.

• Was that role centered on diversity issues?
Had nothing to do with that. I moved into supplier diversity only to go help problem-solve because they needed to figure it out, because at the time, Home Depot was trying to become a major government contractor. And I got intrigued by it because with that part of the business, I found that I was able to do well while doing good. I could help the corporation make money, but I can also see that it was making a difference in the community… So, I could go in and figure out what the company’s business strategies were and align that with the diversity approach. Very few people even do that well today.

• Did that make for a natural transition to nonprofit work?
Not at all. If you’d ever told me I would do this work, I would say absolutely not. Who would take those jobs and work those hours for what you make in a nonprofit? Absolutely not a natural segue at all, but it was one of those things. I wanted to leave corporate America. I had an opportunity to take a package out, and I knew that I needed to make a shift. I didn’t want to get too old before I created a nonprofit that I had already always wanted to create. So, I created an organization called Give & Receive (in the Atlanta area). We had women business owners that would literally come in and take their teams through these volunteerism projects and donation projects where they raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in their local communities. The one I’m most proud of is an organization that we helped start that created a leadership academy for girls in Sierra Leone, and hundreds of girls have now graduated from that academy. Those are the things that were near and dear to my heart.

• So, you’re from Oklahoma. How did you wind up in Michigan?
I was very comfortable with change, and in fact, unless I was changing or making changes that challenged me and kind of kept me up at night thinking about what was next, work wasn’t fun after a year or two. So, I needed that constant change. So, they contacted me about this job. It was a headhunter. I’ll be very honest, my first two responses to him each time they called were ‘I’m not interested, but I do know some really good talent in the space and I’ll send you some names.’ And he said, ‘Look, they really want to meet with you directly.’ I met them at the Westin (at Detroit Metro Airport), and I was so impressed. They were forward thinking, and they weren’t trying to just do business as normal.

• Do you find your work today to be as fulfilling as when you started eight years ago?
You know, I think my goal was to come in and make a difference, and I’m excited by that. I’m excited by the people we’ve been able to help. I am very concerned when I look at the entire industry. I also see major challenges for us. I see that corporations are not as engaged as they’ve been in the past … It is very concerning to me that corporations aren’t being challenged to do more. It’s not exciting always for them to hear from me how I think they’re failing and how they must change their approach.

• How are corporations failing?
We know that over the last 50 years since these programs were created, (minority-owned suppliers) grew about 1 percent, and in that 1 percent, we now see about 2.6 percent of all minority firms grossing more than a million dollars with more than one paid employee. When we look at what it would take to close the racial wealth gap and the fact that it’s costing us about $8 trillion in GDP when you look at money that we’re leaving on the table as a nation because we haven’t figured this out, it’s astonishing.

• How are companies in Michigan performing?
Here’s the thing. I wouldn’t name specific companies because I also credit them. We would not have supplier diversity programs the way we do if it were not for industries primarily represented here, like the automotive industry that literally created joint ventures and second-tier reporting where you report your downstream spend with your suppliers and buyers. Those things came from the automotive industry, so I don’t fault them because they went in and they tried to create tremendous growth by testing and trying models. They must be reinvigorated, however. We’re going to find that many of the gains that they helped the industry make, they’re being bypassed by other industries. And it’s all because of that senior executive support or the lack thereof. It’s not because I think the senior executives don’t care. I think they don’t understand the power of supplier diversity.

• Your organization made headlines last year due to the legal battle with the Piston Group. I think it demonstrated that you’re not afraid to upset the apple cart. Why is that?
Without talking directly about the litigation, I am a person of faith. I don’t take a job that I haven’t really prayed about and know that I can make a difference in. If I don’t feel like I’m the right person, or it’s not the right time, I’m not taking a role, because I take it very, very seriously. That is my job to go in and leave an organization better than I found it, like exponentially. It’s a totally different organization than the one that I inherited …. So, it’s really my job to come in and make that difference. And I think when you’re doing that for the right reason and you operate with integrity, you can go up against anything or anyone because in the end, the truth will win.